Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-18

had been taken with the counterfeiters, and
 told me that the Italians were seldom cap-
 tured without knives upon their person, and
 that they would rather kill than be taken. l
 saw pair of brass knuckles, billy and
 half score of cruel knives. One knife was
 made of file blade and it was fully two
 feet long including the handle, and it's point
 was as sharp as that of a needle. There
 were other knives of all shapes and forms,
 and the thick-set, blonde-haired, blue-eyed
 man told me than many of the arrests made
 were accompanied by bloodshed. Beside
 these knives were some of the plates, dies
 and moulds used for making the "queer;" and
 I watched him as he explained how the gold
 eagle and the silver dollar were easily coun-
 teIfeited. A counterfeit dollar can be made of antimony and lead for about two cents,
 and if ten cents' worth of silver be plated
 upon it it can be made to feel and ring like
 the dollar of our daddies. This, however,
 soon wears off and the counterfeit is detected.
 There are many counterfeit nickels in circu-
 lation, and the moulds for making these may
 be seen here. They look like bullet moulds,
 and the counterfeiter is able to turn out a
 good many dollars a day. He seldom es-
 capes detection, however and the guard tells
 me that he has never yet known of a coun-
 terfeiter who has made any money out of the
 business.
 "They always get taken,'' said he, ''sooner or later, and it is often sooner"
 These counterfeiters. as they look down on
 the walls around the rogues' gallery, are per
 sons of all ages, from the child of fourteen
 to the gray-haired man of seventy. They
 represent not only the counterfeit makers,
 but those who pass the bad money, and they
 include every nationality, even to the Amer
 ican and the heathen Chinee. There are a
 number of Chinese counterfeiters. They do
 not as rule engrave the bills they put out,
 but they are adopts at the change of a two
 al foo 4o,, lo11o l., ,J,.oJ . dollar, and by the aid of cigar stamps and similar bills yet make some very fair imita- t1ons of the larger denominations. They are also coin filters, and they will bore silver dollars through for the shavings and fill the holes with cheaper metals.
 They are not an intellectual set of China men, but they are perhaps the most expert imitators in the world. They get caug ght, however, and quite a number of them are now in the penitentiaries.
 Women counterfeiters are of all ages and styles. Some are very pretty and others so homely that the Witch of Endor would look like Venus beside them Counterfeiting of ten rdns in families, and Colonel Brooks. the head of the secret service, once told ne that he thought it somewhat hereditary. These women are more successful than men in get ting rid of the counterfeit money, and they can pass it where men would fail. Nearly every gang of counterfeiters has one or two NOuoA JttSSSIS HI IL, anu III 1dullleS WuoEe the counterfeiting is done the women or wives of the counterfeiters often attempt to put the spurious money ill circulation.
 The money is not as rule passed out ID it's new shape. There are various methods of making the bills look old and giving them the appearance of having been handled. They are sometimes dipped in weak coffee to give them brownish tint, oil is used to pro- duce the effect of finger marks, and the bills are rubbed this way and that until they are soft and lose their rustling nature.
 I am told that there is scarcely an issue of l our money which has not been counterfeited and saw in the scrapbook counterfeit notes of all descriptions. One curiosity was one hundred dollar coupon of 1881, and the gov \ ernment has two hundred and four of these ! bonds, which they captured just before they were ready to be put upon the country. IL ! is an excellent imitation, and it is impossible for the ordinary man to detect the difference between it and the original. It was en- graved by Smith, man who has worked for years for the engraving office in New York which engraved the government money.